Alabama govt denied bid to screw Black voters

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  • SCOTUS ruled against Alabama’s request for a stay of a lower-court ruling to enforce Allen v Milligan, with no dissents;
  • District court’s ruling on congressional map stands for 2024;
  • Court-appointed Special Master Richard Allen made three maps of a redrawn 2nd district, extending from 48-50%-African American voting age population;
  • Proposed new 2nd district in all versions straddles east to west, including Phenix City-Russell County and part of Mobile.
  • Columbus-Muscogee, most of which is in Rep. Bishop’s GA-02, will have a Democratic neighbor across the Chattahoochee in Congress;
  • Plaintiffs are pleased with the result so far, but both parties had three days to file objections to the maps;
  • court selected remedial Map 3, which is seen by #ElectionTwitter as holding up the most for Democrats in its new 2nd district;
  • This may be good news for the plaintiffs in the Louisiana case, which is currently before the 5th Circuit;
  • Candidate qualifying in Alabama will open on Monday, October 16, 2023, at 8:30 a.m and close on Friday, November 10, 2023, at 5 p.m. CST.
  • Alabama had a separate appeal before SCOTUS, but on September 30, the state voluntarily dismissed their case. It would have been very odd for SCOTUS to support Alabama in that case after rejecting their bid for a stay;
  • Famous places to be represented by the new AL-02:
    • Tuskegee University
    • Tuskegee National Forest, the smallest national forest in the US
    • The Montgomery end of the Selma-to-Montgomery National Trail
    • The Jere Shine archaeological site
    • Alabama State University and its Historic District
    • Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base
    • Troy University (main campus)
    • Faulkner University
    • Huntingdon College
    • Auburn University at Montgomery
  • Declared candidates:
    • Austin Vigue (staff at Auburn University)
  • Possible candidates for District 2:
    • Kirk Hatcher (Senate District 26, Montgomery)
    • Robert Stewart (Senate District 23, southern Black Belt)
    • Vivian Davis Figures (Senate District 33, Mobile)
    • Jeremy Gray (House District 83, Phenix City)
    • Berry Forte (House District 84)
    • Pebbin Warren (House District 82)
    • Patrice McClammey (House District 76)
    • TaShina Morris (House District 77)
    • Thomas Jackson (House District 68)
    • Napoleon Bracy (House District 98)
    • Adline Clark (House District 97)
    • Barbara Drummond (House District 103)
    • Steven Reed (Mayor of Montgomery)
    • Eddie Lowe (Mayor of Phenix City)
    • Lawrence Haywood Jr (Mayor of Tuskegee)
    • Phyllis Harvey-Hall (2nd congressional district Democratic nominee 2020 and 2022)
    • Doug Jones (former U.S. Senator, although he lives much closer to Birmingham)

Several people, all likely Dems, may look for an on-ramp to a career in DC with this district when it is approved.

A big question is if the creation of this district will allow Dems to cultivate more political talent from the rural Black Belt region.

Alabama will join the number of Southern states with more than one majority-minority or minority-plurality district, alongside Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Texas (Tennessee used to have more than one but it was eliminated in 2022).

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